As the UK remains in the grip of the cost of living crisis, many businesses are struggling to find new customers. While many marketers have been using digital marketing methods, including PPC advertising, many are becoming disillusioned with this marketing model in 2022 due to its high cost and low results. As budgets continue to tighten, many companies are turning to leaflet distribution to get their message across. This article will take you through the best ways to distribute your leaflets.
Why opt for leaflet distribution?
In the digital age, you may think that old-school methods of marketing are less than effective – but this couldn’t be further from the truth. Leaflet distribution has a number of benefits for the modern business, including:
- Laser-targeting – Unlike digital marketing, it’s possible to target leaflet distribution to not just a particular town or city but particular streets and even specific houses. This makes for a campaign which is more highly focused and which, therefore, cuts down on wasted cash.
- Cost – As well as being more reasonably priced than digital marketing, leaflet distribution is also more cost-effective due to the fact that money is spent only on delivering to those who meet a finely tuned set of criteria.
- Effectiveness – When deciding on marketing methods, business owners want cold, hard facts, and with leaflet distribution, the statistics speak for themselves. Studies show that 48% of consumers will respond to a leaflet campaign, in comparison to an 18% conversion rate for digital adverts. Additionally, approximately 79% of leaflet recipients say that they either keep a leaflet or pass it on to somebody else.
One of the major benefits of leaflet distribution is that people respond very differently to a physical item such as a leaflet than they do to a PPC advert which they can – and often do – simply scroll past.
The best ways to distribute leaflets
The type of distribution you choose depends, to an extent, on what kind of business you are running and in this section, we’ll take a look at some of the options:
Shared leaflet drops
The most popular form of leaflet distribution, this method means that your leaflets will be delivered to residences along with those from other businesses in the area. This option works best for businesses in a local area that does not have a lot of direct competition within the catchment area. Shared leaflet drops tend to be the most cost-effective option for local businesses and are very much suited to businesses such as food delivery and independent shops.
Solus leaflet drops
While a little more expensive than a shared leaflet drop, solus leaflet distribution is great for focusing the attention on your offering. With this type of distribution, yours will be the only leaflet delivered during a round of distribution, thus removing any conflict of interest. Solus distribution is ideal for local companies who tend to have a high level of competition – for example, a pizza restaurant within a small town which features a number of similar restaurants.
Hand-to-hand leaflet drops
Although this one can be a little bit hit-and-miss, it can also be hugely effective if you get it right. If you visit a local shopping centre or busy high street, you will no doubt have noticed people handing out flyers and leaflets to members of the public as they go about their business.
Whether you love ‘em or hate ‘em, leaflet distributors in public areas get some great results as, in many cases, natural instinct makes us take something that is being offered to us. Although it’s true that some of these leaflets will go into the nearest bin, it’s also very much the case that a lot of people will instinctively glance at them once it’s been handed over.
Hand-to-hand leaflet drops can work for a number of different types of businesses. Still, these are particularly effective when used by a local shop or food and drink establishment which is running a special offer. Similarly, offering a discount or other incentive when a customer produces the leaflet can help to ensure that people hang onto the leaflets rather than throwing them away.#
Business-to-business leaflet drops
As the name suggests, these are leaflet marketing campaigns run by one business in order to gain custom from other, non-competing businesses. These can work in a few different ways – for example, a leaflet may be delivered to a website development company offering the services of a marketing agency.
These can also be used to invite collaborations between businesses – for example; a local cafe may seek to collaborate with a hairdressing salon in order to promote each other’s businesses.
This can also be as simple as asking another business to display your leaflet in their window or on their notice board in order to attract new customers. The friendly team at DOR-2-DOR can help you to figure out what kind of business to deliver your leaflets to.
Designing your leaflet
Deciding which kind of distribution will work best for your business is half the battle – and at DOR-2-DOR, we can help to advise on the right fit for your budget and requirements. You also need to think about the design of your leaflet to make sure that it does the job for you.
The following are our tips for keeping your leaflets in people’s hands – and out of the bin:
- Use colour wisely – The temptation is often to make your leaflet as bright as possible, but this isn’t always the best way. For example, if your business is ‘serious’, such as a healthcare company, you’ll want to use more grown-up, reassuring colours such as dark blue or green. While you’re at it, don’t be tempted to use fancy fonts, as these are often hard to read at a glance.
- Keep text clear – You want to make the most of your leaflet drop, but cramming tons of text onto your leaflet is confusing and a turn-off. Instead, keep your messaging clear and keep text to a minimum.
- Keep it top right – A great leaflet needs a killer call to action and when including this, remember the old mantra – keep it in sight, keep it top right! Your call to action also needs to be crystal clear as to what you want the customer to do next, whether that’s visiting your website, making a telephone call or visiting your shop.
Working harder for your cash
With prices soaring in the UK, marketers need their budgets to work harder than ever – which means cutting down on money wasted on digital advertising, which is simply not delivering. If you feel that it’s time to make your advertising budget work as hard as you do, our friendly and professional team is on hand to advise you on every aspect of your campaign and to start getting your message across to the right people at the right time.
